A few days ago, several members of Gu City's Qingshan Archaeological Team had gone missing on Cloud Mountain. There had been no word from them since.
The disappearances had taken place after the excavation of the Gutuo Kingdom's royal tomb.
Li Fan had specifically looked up information about the case two days ago. At the time, it hadn't seemed like much, but after seeing the Han Dynasty-style Tree Spirit Jade Figurine, he'd immediately connected the dots.
Wu Qian's expression turned serious. He said:
"Exactly. You even figured that out... These tree people were found deep in Cloud Mountain by the Investigation Department. To be precise, they found an entire forest."
Li Fan nodded slightly.
First, there had been Amalgams formed from humans merging together, then tree people formed from humans merging with trees, and now the Gutuo Kingdom's royal tomb.
The Unity Society had to be behind all this!
The jade figurine before him was definitely unusual, too. But this wasn't the time to study it closely. It looked like he'd have to come back tonight.
"Fan, I didn't know you knew so much about ancient jade. Where'd you learn all that?" Wu Qian said with satisfaction as he placed the reassembled jade figurine in a storage box.
Li Fan chuckled and said:
"My father taught me. He was fond of collecting things when he was young."
Actually, it was a skill he'd picked up to make a living in his previous life. If he told Wu Qian that, it would probably scare him to death.
"No wonder. It runs in the family." Wu Qian nodded in satisfaction. The more he looked at Li Fan, the more he liked him. "Any other new discoveries?"
His gaze was full of encouragement.
Li Fan quickly said:
"No, Director Wu. I was just asking around. I've only been working for a few days. What could I possibly know..."
What could a nobody like me know?
"Good. Hurry to the cafeteria and get something to eat. If you wait any longer, there won't be anything left."
Li Fan immediately put the little jade figurine in the Containment Room, then changed into casual clothes and went to eat.
Things were different from before. By now, plenty of young employees knew that he'd been promoted to a permanent position on his very first day at work. A few were unhappy about it, but most were intensely envious.
When Li Fan showed up in the dining hall, dozens of times as many people greeted him as before. Previously, Zhao Lei had been the only one.
After eating, he went straight back to the office and dozed for a while, waiting for his shift.
Since they'd worked overtime that morning, many of his colleagues had simply come in early that afternoon, too. They started work at half past two.
Wu Qian was deeply moved. You really saw who your friends were in hard times.
The team's main task that afternoon was to process the files on that day's anomalies: photographing, documenting, and even scanning them before filing them away in the proper categories.
It was more of a hassle than dissecting a corpse.
A tedious load of paperwork.
The grueling two-and-a-half-hour shift finally came to an end. The staff of the Dissection Department, who rarely worked overtime, scattered in all directions.
Li Fan deliberately dawdled, lingering until everyone else had left before coming out of the office.
Zhang Hongbing was on duty tonight.
Li Fan said to him:
"Engineer Zhang, I think there might still be something left on the corpse we dissected this morning. I'll take another look."
Zhang Hongbing was smoking and watching TV. He nodded approvingly.
"You're a leader now. You don't need to ask me for permission. Go ahead and take a look. Young people like you have real drive!"
Li Fan scratched his head awkwardly, then went down to the basement.
After his experience with the Amalgam, he understood that there might well be something else inside the little jade carving—or inside those corpses.
The dense black mycelium on the jade figurine alone was enough to put him on alert.
After suppressing the Tiger Pillar God last time, his mental strength had improved quite a bit. This time, he wanted to see if there were any more benefits to be had.
There was no helping it. He had to get stronger if he wanted to stay alive.
He also needed to look for clues about the Unity Society, so he could get back at them for the promotion.
These fusion anomalies that kept appearing in Gu City made it feel as though something big was about to happen.
After the corpses had been processed that morning, their mental radiation had dropped to a very low level. The Tree Spirit Jade Figurine had also been placed in a specially made containment box, so it shouldn't have much of an effect.
So Li Fan didn't put on a hazmat suit. He went straight into the Containment Room.
The room was empty, with nothing but rows of shelves holding various containment boxes.
They contained items left behind after previous anomalous incidents had been dealt with.
But according to Zhang Hongbing and the other veterans, the objects from earlier cases had generally stopped emitting mental radiation after they were processed. They were nowhere near as bizarre as the things appearing now.
Li Fan quickly found the box containing the Tree Spirit Jade Figurine he'd put away earlier.
The shattered jade pieces had been stuck together with blood plasma. Now, streaks of red showed through from within, like a web of blood vessels.
The figurine lay in the box, its face wearing a sinister smile.
He flicked open his lighter. In its crimson glow, clusters of black mold immediately appeared on the Tree Spirit Jade Figurine, nearly filling the entire containment box and threatening to spill out.
Something inside the Tree Spirit Jade Figurine was clearly wriggling.
The next instant, as if it had sensed Li Fan's gaze, a little human-faced snake emerged from inside the figurine. It smiled seductively at him, looking utterly evil.
If the special material of the containment box hadn't blocked it, the mental radiation from that human-faced snake would definitely have affected Li Fan.
Li Fan took the box to a camera's blind spot and looked around. Once he was sure nobody was there, he swiped his hand through the air and grabbed the phantom of the bronze chains around the Tiger Pillar God. Then he yanked hard.
A light and shadow about the size of a cat was pulled from thin air, then attached itself to Li Fan.
Under the blood-red glow, a ghastly green light of mental radiation shone around Li Fan. A tiger's head, a human body, python arms, and crocodile claws—the Tiger Pillar God had possessed him!
Li Fan immediately felt that his control over his body had reached an unprecedented level. His strength had increased dramatically, and his reflexes and movements had become far more agile.
But he could clearly sense that the Tiger Pillar God was now terrified of him. It was cowering inside him.
Li Fan quickly soothed it in his mind and told it to calm down.
Only after it was sure Li Fan wouldn't annihilate it did the Tiger Pillar God finally settle down. It submitted to Li Fan's will and handed its power over to him.
Li Fan took a deep breath and opened the containment box before him.
The moment the box opened, the human-faced snake's seductive expression vanished. It bared its fangs, sprang up viciously, and darted toward Li Fan's forehead!
But just then, Li Fan jerked his head forward and opened his mouth, biting down on the human-faced snake's spirit!
That move was just like a dog's... Even as he felt the lightning-fast speed of his own movements, Li Fan couldn't help grumbling to himself.
At the same time, he felt the Tiger Pillar God's emotions—a powerful hunger.
It was ravenous!
Then Li Fan couldn't help chomping down. He chewed the human-faced snake's spirit to pieces and swallowed it.
A strange sense of fullness washed over him, a fullness of the mind. It was as if he'd entered the most profound state of consciousness.
Li Fan also felt as though he had split into two. There were two kinds of mental power inside him.
One was the mental power of an ordinary person, with a reading of only 18.
The other lurked in his subconscious, like something lying in wait in the abyss. It was the mental power from the Prison of Suppression, and its exact value was unknown for now.
But both kinds of mental power belonged to him.
The human-faced snake's spirit had also been swallowed and merged into the mental power in his subconscious.
It was an incredibly strange and mysterious feeling.
It was like having two kinds of money: a few bills in your wallet and a string of numbers in your online account. You could spend either, but other people could generally only see the bills in your wallet.
As for the Tiger Pillar God's mental power, it was like money stolen from someone else. He could spend as much of it as he wanted.
He also gained a better understanding of the Tiger Pillar God's power. At the very least, killing this human-faced snake's spirit had been easy.
This infection source was so weak there was no need to lock it away in the Prison of Suppression. He might as well eat it.
Under the lighter's crimson glow, the black mycelium on the surface of the Tree Spirit Jade Figurine gradually peeled away and disappeared along with the human-faced snake's spirit. The figurine became completely ordinary.
Li Fan closed the lid of the storage box and returned it to its place, then went down to the morgue on the basement's second floor.
It was basically just a massive cold-storage room.
Li Fan pulled open one of the morgue drawers where the tree people were stored and examined it carefully.
The Tiger Pillar God was still possessing him. Li Fan's body was incredibly agile, and even his vision was much clearer than before. He could see things he hadn't noticed previously.
Something was slowly wriggling inside a wound on the tree person's body.
It had clearly been dormant during the day. Even the light from the blood-red lighter hadn't revealed it.
It was exactly like the Shell Currency inside the Amalgam before.
Li Fan's hand shot out and grabbed the area. At the same time, the phantom of the Tiger Pillar God's python arm darted into the corpse. When it pulled back, its jaws were already clamped around a wriggling human-faced snake.
This human-faced snake was much smaller than the last one. The phantom python arm swallowed it whole.
Li Fan once again felt his mental strength increase.
It was a permanent boost to the strength of his mental power, and extremely useful.
At the same time, a memory surged into his mind!
It belonged to an archaeological team member!
Cloud Mountain, the royal tomb, a black forest, and a feast of immortals...
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